Universal then WDW onsite, or WDW onsite entire stay with day trip to Universal?

Let us know what you decide. I don't think you can really lose when it comes to this type of planning.
 
I'm struggling with this, too! We are going next year and want to do 2 days at US and the finish at WDW. We would do it in reverse, but we like to end our trip with the MK and I don't think we want to change that tradition. Our idea right now is to stay at a WDW value and rent a car for those 2 days. We'll be doing Boardwalk for the rest of the trip.

I'm not sold on staying onsite at US, so maybe this thread will help! ;)
 
not to hijack your thread but it did give me an idea that I need clarification on. If I stay 1 night at Universal studios resort , I get an express pass for the day I check in & the day I check out?

yep, you're right--check in and check out days are included. so if you stay one night, your express pass will be good both days. everyone in the room gets a pass. the only other thing I would underscore is that the passes are only included at deluxe resorts--royal pacific, hard rock, and portofino bay.
 
We are doing four nights at a hotel on international drive with two days at Universal, plus the space centre and shopping, followed by 9 days at a Disney resort in September-October. We decided on it this way around since when we went to Disneyland 7 years ago, followed by Universal we were let down by Universal, since Disney had set the bar so high. We figure if we do universal first this time it won't seem like a let down after Disney World. We are staying on property at Disney but not Universal. We will have a rental car at Universal but not Disney. I also made Disney our last stop since I plan on doing a lot of shopping there and don't need to lug around our suitcases for so long if it's the last stop on our trip. We will just use taxis and uber to go off property when we need a break from Disney in the last week.

Note that I have never been to either of these places before, so take my plan with a grain of salt. Good luck with your planning.
 

My DH and I drove so that may have affected our decision a bit. We stayed onsite at Disney and just did a day trip to Universal. It's not that far away, from getting in our car at our Disney resort to getting out of our car at Universal parking garage it was maybe 30 minutes. We also considered staying onsite at Universal for 1-2 nights mainly for the express pass but it was going to be more expensive. I'm glad we didn't because we didn't end up enjoying Universal as much as we thought we were going to.
 
I have done it all -- stayed at Disney -- drove over to Universal. Split stays and Disney and Universal. I cannot encourage everyone enough to go to Disney first then go to Universal and stay on site at one of the hotels with express pass privileges. You can get cheaper deals with cheaptickets.com for those hotels if you watch. It's so relaxing to go to Universal and basically walk onto rides after all the planning. The only thing that doesn't have express pass is the Harry Potter rides, and you can get in an hour early to do those -- in at least one park. Next year, we're going to do something different sort of. We're going to go to Disney, spend a couple of nights, do the Thrills tour and spend the majority of the time at Universal (DS 9 is way more into Universal now... sigh....). We're just trying to decide on hotel at Disney now (we usually stay at Shades of Green but may actually do a Disney hotel this time -- depends how many rewards points I have saved up by then).
 
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